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Practical Handbook VAT 2022

Intra-EU acquisitions of goods by companies and professionals

Requirements that must be met for this taxable event to occur:

  1. The power of disposal for valuable consideration over tangible movable property must be obtained.

  2. The goods must be transported from another Member State to the territory of application of the tax by the transferor, the acquirer or a carrier acting in the name and on behalf of either of them.If there is no transport from another Member State, the transaction would be treated as an inland supply in the State in which it takes place.

  3. The transferor must be an entrepreneur or professional.

  4. The acquirer must be a trader or professional or a legal person not acting as such.

Examples:

  • A retailer places a telephone order with a French businessman.The French entrepreneur then transports the goods in his van to the taxable territory and delivers them.

    The retail trader makes an intra-Community acquisition of goods subject to VAT in Spain when all the requirements are met:there is an acquisition, a transport of goods from another Member State to the Spanish VAT territory, the transferor is a trader or professional and the acquirer is also a trader or professional (even if he is taxed under the special scheme for the equivalence surcharge), the intra-Community acquisitions made in the Spanish VAT territory are subject to that tax.

  • A Spanish entrepreneur delivers goods to an entrepreneur established in the Netherlands who, without having taken them out of Spanish territory, sells them to another Spanish company.

    There are two deliveries of goods:

    The first is the sale of products to the Dutch company:In this case there is no intra-Community transaction, as the goods do not leave Spanish territory, and VAT must therefore be charged.The second is the sale in Spain by the Dutch company, in this case, it is also a domestic operation subject to VAT as there is no transport outside Spain.

From 1 March 2020, , the concept of intra-Community acquisition of goods includes obtaining the power of disposal over movable tangible property in the context of an agreement for the sale of goods on consignment.